Armenia and Turkey have long been at odds. Divided over a tragic past, the neighboring countries do not have diplomatic ties, and their border remains closed. Despite this, in November 2014, a group of Turks traveled to Armenia for Startup Weekend, an event where aspiring entrepreneurs hone and pitch their ideas to investors and experts.

Tags: entrepreneurship, armenia, turkey, diplomatic relations, startup weekend, non state pd, innovation

The U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform launched a wide-ranging probe this week to find out how much money the federal government is spending on art. Chaffetz, the chair of the committee, signed a letter dated March 21 and addressed to 25 different agency leaders, including every cabinet-level secretary.

Tags: united states, arts, Cultural Diplomacy, government pd, gop, art in embassies, state department, culture

Google’s video giant has become not just the Web's biggest petri dish for the funny, weird and astronomically popular. With its 1 billion viewers and cultural omnipresence, it now offers campaigns a breadth no hometown TV network can match.

Tags: youtube, digital populism, political campaign, online videos, media, international broadcasting, presidential election, political advertisement, advocacy, google

Ulusoy said Turkey has been very proactive in promoting longstanding cultural ties with Ethiopia through the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA).    

Tags: turkey, africa, ethiopia, partnership, cooperation, Cultural Diplomacy, government pd

After more than five decades of touring, the Rolling Stones will finally bring their music to Cuba Friday night for the first time. The performance is billed as the first open-air concert in Cuba by a British rock band. The concert marks a milestone as rock 'n' roll was considered subversive and decadent by the Castro regime no too long ago.

Tags: united states, cuba, rolling stones, music diplomacy, castro regime, concert, soft power, non-state pd

Baseball is obviously something that the United States and the Cuban people share a common love of and it's a part of both of our heritages, and frankly, also part of the type of exchanges that we are pursuing in business, in culture, in the arts, in sports that can bring the American and Cuban people closer together.

Tags: barack obama, cuba, united states, baseball diplomacy, sports diplomacy, government pd, obama cuba visit, MLB, soft power

BigBang and CL turned out to be the only South Koreans in the pool of 127 candidates of the online poll, along with U.S. President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Pope Francis, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Hollywood star actor Leonardo DiCaprio.

Tags: south korea, k-pop, soft power, non-state pd, online poll, polling, time 100, big bang, 2ne1, CL, nation branding

President Xi Jinping proposed the cultural exchange year in 2014 when he attended the China-Latin America and the Caribbean Summit in Brasilia.

Tags: china, latin america, cultural exchange, beijing, Cultural Programs, uruguay national ballet, xi jinping, ballet, argentina, peru, brazil, cuba, art diplomacy, dance diplomacy